I just put together this simple fun kit from Sparkfun – it’s a great big chunky watch, with retro LED display!

The digits are much brighter and easier to read in person. I have not yet mastered the art of taking photographs of illuminated LEDs… either the LEDs are clear and everything else is dim, or the LEDs are dim and everything else is properly exposed.

After about 2 1/2 years, I finally got around to fixing my wristwatch.

Way back when, I accidentally dropped it and when it hit the floor, the second hand popped off, and was rattling around under the crystal. Second hands are so incredibly thin and fragile that I was worried if I kept using it, the second hand might get trapped between the other hands and get bent or jammed up.

So for about 30 months, the watch has been sitting on my workbench, waiting for attention.

Then I found myself going into my watchmaking toolkit as I needed one of the micro screwdrivers, and that’s when I found myself looking at the watch. So as soon as I finished the other project, I got the watch, case wrench, tweezers and loupe, and went to work.

It really didn’t take much time – most of the time I spent was trying to remember how to release the stem. Some of them you have to unscrew a set screw slightly, other ones have a push-release. This one is a push-release.

Then it was pretty straightforward to get the second-hand with the tweezers and press it back onto the spindle thing.

I forget the correct terms. It’s been 5 years since I was into watchmaking, I’ve forgot all the terminology.

I better be more careful. You know it was no “coincidence” that minutes after posting the warning about wearing hats, an ambambulance pulled up and stopped infront of my house, right infront of my livingroom window, so they could check in on me at my computer.

Sure they pretended to be “lost”, they took turns rooting through maps, but I noticed that only one was looking at maps at the time. That meant the other was free to spy on me…

In early 2005, for the first time in five or six years, I was in the market for a time piece. I wanted something interesting, with character, something a little unique. Definately not digital. No plastic.

My search initially led me to a very nice Citizen Eco-Drive. But it was out of my price-range — about $500. I then turned my eye towards mechanical watches. No quartz, no battery, no solar. My budget was too tight for anything new and current — fashionable new mechanical watches are very costly — so my attention turned to the vintage section on eBay.

There, I came across an inexpensive ‘vintage’ watch from the 1980s – that happened to have been made in the U.S.S.R. That began my love and fascination of Soviet timepieces – which would be a webpage all its own – so for more info on Soviet/Russian watches, just see the links below.

Quickly I found myself with a small collection of Soviet watches. I then realized they would need service sooner or later (like cars, mechanical watches need to be properly maintained). When the watches themselves are so inexpensive, it didn’t make sense to pay high prices for professional service – yet the watches are good quality and will need service. So there was only one logical solution.

I proceeded to start teaching myself watchmaking.

Learning & Research

Movement Caliber 10BT, 1951, Bulova Watch Co., Swiss

The internet can be a great resource, if you know how to search and where to look. Suffering from chronic insomnia helps too. Insomnia, and an obsessive-compulsive need to always learn new stuff.

I started finding websites of watch enthusiasts, amateur watchmakers, and watch manufacturers. I started reading everything I could find on the subject. I would read and re-read things, memorizing parts, draw sketches of wheel trains and motion works. I found a few horological forums, and read all the posts and articles I could find about watch making and repair.

Along the way I came across the TimeZone Tool Shop, an online store that sold watch parts and watchmakers’ tools. They sell the kits that are used in the TimeZone Watch School. I immediately ordered the Level 1 kit, along with some other watch parts, and got to work. I must admit, although I have heard a lot of good things about the TimeZone Watch School, I have not yet enrolled. I keep planning to, but then I keep thinking I’d rather spend the money on another Soviet watch, or some more tools or watch parts. I will definately do it sooner or later though. If not the Level 1 class, then certainly the Level 2.

Without taking any courses, or buying any books, I have managed to teach myself enough just by reading (and reading, and reading) as well as getting helpful advice from some very kind people in the forums. So far I have repaired a faulty day-date mechanism in a Soviet watch, replaced a broken mainspring and bridge in a 1950’s era Bulova, and started designing & building my own watches.

My Home-Made Watches

These are my home-made, custom designed watches. Watches in this section are ones I have designed and made entirely by myself. Either for my own enjoyment, or as gifts for friends or family.

I’ve seen a couple one-handed watches elsewhere on the internet, and I thought they were really unique and interesting, so I decided to have a go at it myself. My interpretation makes the watch as simple as it can get – it tells you nothing but the time.